Anssi and Sami go to the University of Jyväskylä to fetch a single-crystal XRD

Anssi (left) and Sami on Tuesday morning before leaving to Jyväskylä. Photo by Ari Lehtonen.

Anssi and Sami visited the University of Jyväskylä on Tuesday and Wednesday to get a single-crystal X-ray diffractometer, which we don’t have at our chemistry department. After arriving in Jyväskylä on Tuesday afternoon, all the peripherals were removed from the device and it was strapped, and on Wednesday morning Martela’s movers came to move it with a safe dolly to the van.

Anssi working on detaching the peripherals.
The device safely in the van.

In Turku, Muuttohaukat’s men wheeled the device into our X-ray lab. Everything went successfully and according to plans, and right at the beginning of the year we will get it up and running.

The instrument in its place in Aurum, but not yet running.

With the device, it is possible to acquire information about substances made into crystalline form in such a way that their three-dimensional structure can be resolved with the help of the diffraction pattern of the sample. The method is especially used to determine the structures of IMC’s organometallic compounds, but the new device is expected to be used by synthetic chemists in the entire Department of Chemistry, as well as more widely by researchers at the University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University. Special thanks to JYU’s Kari Rissanen, Heikki Tuononen, Manu Lahtinen, and Samu Forsblom!

Meet Max, our new X-ray diffractometer

It is with great delight that we introduce the latest addition to the line of instruments at our group’s disposal, the Aeris Research Edition powder X-ray diffractometer, namely “Max”, manufactured by Malvern Panalytical in Holland. Max is a compact benchtop instrument for the structural analysis of polycrystalline powders, and bears the name of the discoverer of X-ray diffraction by crystals as well as the 2021 Dutch Formula 1 champion.

The new instrument will be of great importance in the characterization of materials synthesized in our group and we would like to give a huge thanks for the Department of Chemistry for making the acquisition possible!